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1534 E Lake St
specialty: cream filled horn!
price:$1-2 per item
After a large meal, it is always advised to keep eating rich creamy foods to offset any fried or greasy items in your belly. This is why my compadres and I opted for Panaderia San Miguel, across the street from La Que Buena. Leaving the restaurant, after multiple Micheladas, we began our march -one of us right into a pole!
As we entered the bakery, the sweet smell of lard and sugar filled our nostrils. The large lit-up cases were intimidating, with their rows and rows of beautiful pastries. That is usually the case with Mexican bakeries, everything looks so appealing. It is like a gingerbread house, very appealing to the eye, but not so much to the stomach, as the items are often left out for multiple days....
There is a lot of craftsmanship that goes into Mexican pastries with their intricate patterns and colorful sugar coated shapes. Often, I find that most of them taste the same. It is the combination of fat and sugar that I taste.
San Miguel had a few pastries I have not seen before. These pastries were of the cream variety. Most notably, the cream-filled horn covered in powdered sugar. If you have not tried this before, I recommend that you do.
cream factor: 4
overall rating: 3
1611 E Lake St
Minneapolis, MN 55407
specialty: Michelad
price: $8-20
MICHELAD! Is the secret word of the day. When anyone hears that word -scream real loud! The best Michelad I have tasted so far is found at La Que Buena. It is the magical combination of beer and peppery hot tomato juice. It is enough to sweep anyone out of those winter blues! I visited La Que Buena twice. Once with a small group and once with a birthday party. Both times there was Michelad and tequila were involved.
La Que Buena is situated right next to La Poblania, which you think would be bad for business, but that didn't seem to be the case either times I visited. Entering the restaurant, one might wonder if it is closing soon because of the half-lit room. There is a definite difference in lighting from the front of the room to the back -where the locals drink their Michelad.
The first time I was there we were seated under a mounted elk with Mexican memorabilia hanging from the antler. A young woman greeted us with chips, that were double fried and dripping with grease. We dove right in. Greasy goodness is what was discovered.
Mariscos (seafood) takes up the largest portion of the La Que Buena menu. Langostinos Gigantes or Cola de Langosta were a few of the choices on the menu featuring a rather busty young woman holding a Mexican platter -ogled by my husband. I opted for the Camerones Rancahros which were shrimp in a spicy rancharos sauce.
The shrimp was very good but nothing really notable. I could achieve the same results adding my favorite chili powder to a marinara sauce and pouring it over shrimp. It left me wanting beans, which I didn't have on my plate. My side dish: rice with vegetables. I ordered a side of beans, which pushed my bill over $13 for one plate of food (not including the two Michelads and shot of tequila). The price was a bit steep for what I have experienced on Lake Street so far.
The second time I visited I had chicken mole. The mole sauce was really tasty -as is the enchilada sauce that is served with the chili rellenos and enchiladas eaten by my friends. They actually grind their own chilies (according to a chef that we met off duty drinking Michelads). I was impressed overall by their sauces at La Que Buena, but I was not impressed by the quality of the chicken in my mole. It tasted like it had been frozen and thawed and frozen and thawed.
chips and salsa: 3.4
beverage selection/quality: 5
overall rating: 3
1617-1623 E. Lake St
MInneapolis, MN 55407
specialty: anything made with corn
price: $3-10
It was on Dia De Los Muertos that we ventured into La Poblanita for the first time. It was a Thursday and the crowd was thin, only a few locals were seated in the large two room dining space. Immediately we noticed a large screen -projector television in one of the dining spaces playing Mexican videos. The sound from the TV was rather loud considering there were only a few people in the space.We sat down in the room without the TV projector and ordered three Dos Eqius. La Poblanita specializes in anything handmade with corn so I thought obviously, I would order a combination with whatever could be made by hand: tortillas, taco shells, tlacoyos,huaraches, sopes, gortidas, and chalupas. My platter was composed of tlacoyoa huaraches, sope, a taco and beans and rice. A true feast!
The ingredients were fresh and the homemade quality of the corn delicacies were evident. This was the first time I had ever tried a sope and I was sold. The texture was just right, similar to a tortilla but thicker and chewy. The toppings: beans, lettuce, cheese avocado and green chili salsa complimented the rich corn taste.
Before I skip ahead to the actual meal (OK, I did) something should be said about the chips and
salsa because they were notable. For one, the chips were amazing, again, handmade corn delicacies and the salsa was interesting -like nothing I had tired before. What made it interesting is the creaminess of both the red and green salsas. The green was most certainly whipped with avocados and the red with some sort of creamy goodness -e.g. cheese or heavy cream. Both were defiantly spicy, which I appreciate. There was no "dumbing down" for those Minnesota whiteys who don't like anything "too spicy don't cha know" and prefer Pepitos to anything on Lake Street because it is "soooo good."
La Poblanitas is the real deal as far as I can tell. They use quality ingredients and good cooks who know what they are doing. I did visit it a second time and all I have to say for that is -consistency. Please also note that there is a meat market and mercado attached to it. Buena Fiesta!
chips and salsa: 5
quality of ingredients: 5
overall rating: 4.5
1534 E Lake St
